I clean house for an elderly lady who has two adult daughters. Daughter2 came to visit her mother and we were chatting about Daughter1's vacation. The following conversation ensued:D2: My sister is on vacation, so if you need more cleaning supplies, call me, not her.Me: oh okay, I wish I could go on vacation.D2: Me too. I wish I had enough money to go out of the country like my sister.Me: oh, where did she go?D2: HawaiiMe: *facepalm*

I'll let that pass if they are thinking of the expense of flying there being about the same as flying to Europe. When we first moved to San Angelo we were amazed at the number of licence plates from Hawaii and Alaska. I think we had only seen Alaskan plates on vacation in Canada and never seen Hawaii plates in real life. A neighbor explained that the military considers Hawaii and Alaska assignments to be overseas and will transport 1 vehicle per family back to the mainland when they move. If they move within lower 48, they have to transport the car themselves.

That and the car seats in the back of patrol cars, with infants - preschooler riding in them were the two biggest shocks moving there. Cops took their patrol cars home. The cops were allowed to use the vehicle to drop their kids off at daycare/school on the way to work and pick them up on the way home. It did lower the amount of SS behavior in the school pick up lines to have 2 -3 patrol cars in the line.

I clean house for an elderly lady who has two adult daughters. Daughter2 came to visit her mother and we were chatting about Daughter1's vacation. The following conversation ensued:D2: My sister is on vacation, so if you need more cleaning supplies, call me, not her.Me: oh okay, I wish I could go on vacation.D2: Me too. I wish I had enough money to go out of the country like my sister.Me: oh, where did she go?D2: HawaiiMe: *facepalm*

I'll let that pass if they are thinking of the expense of flying there being about the same as flying to Europe. When we first moved to San Angelo we were amazed at the number of licence plates from Hawaii and Alaska. I think we had only seen Alaskan plates on vacation in Canada and never seen Hawaii plates in real life. A neighbor explained that the military considers Hawaii and Alaska assignments to be overseas and will transport 1 vehicle per family back to the mainland when they move. If they move within lower 48, they have to transport the car themselves.

That and the car seats in the back of patrol cars, with infants - preschooler riding in them were the two biggest shocks moving there. Cops took their patrol cars home. The cops were allowed to use the vehicle to drop their kids off at daycare/school on the way to work and pick them up on the way home. It did lower the amount of SS behavior in the school pick up lines to have 2 -3 patrol cars in the line.

When DH and I visited mainland USA, we were complimented daily on our great English. We are Australian. One guy, upon hearing we were Australian, said something like, "wow, that's overseas, isn't it? Like Canada?" I don't know, is there a prevalent belief that only people in America and England speak English? We traveled around quite a bit, so it wasn't just in one place.

I would have thought that people would be vaguely aware of which countries speak the same language as you, if only for potential holiday purposes.

Although, I've actually met British people who have complained of the same problem. Maybe we were just unlucky with the numbers of clueless people we encountered.

Those of you who are geography fans . . . have you tried http://geoguessr.com? Really interesting geography game - it plops you down in a Google street view somewhere in the world, and you have to wander around a bit until you feel confident taking a guess at where you are. You get points based on how close to accurate you were (in miles). I found it really interesting what things I ended up using for clues - foliage, language on signs, license plates, shop names, etc. My closest so far was .1 miles (it plopped me down in front of an easily-identifiable restaurant which was named for the bay it was in, which I've been to) and my farthest was mixing up Scotland and New Zealand

When DH and I visited mainland USA, we were complimented daily on our great English. We are Australian. One guy, upon hearing we were Australian, said something like, "wow, that's overseas, isn't it? Like Canada?" I don't know, is there a prevalent belief that only people in America and England speak English? We traveled around quite a bit, so it wasn't just in one place.

I would have thought that people would be vaguely aware of which countries speak the same language as you, if only for potential holiday purposes.

Although, I've actually met British people who have complained of the same problem. Maybe we were just unlucky with the numbers of clueless people we encountered.

I get the same - I live in a tourist destination in Europe - whenever they hear me speak, people ask where I'm from. I usually respond "Texas" and the response is inevitably "Wow, your English is really good!" These are not people who don't know where Texas is... they all say "Oh, Dallas! Who shot JR!" They just don't think we speak English there, apparently...

Slartibartfast, you are awesome! I showed this game to my 10 year old geography fiend and he's been transported (pun intended)!

And I just played it again and had my bestest score ever (31750) - all five rounds put me somewhere I could identify! (With the help of Google, but still - cool that a random roadside stand in rural Africa had a Facebook page!)

Those of you who are geography fans . . . have you tried http://geoguessr.com? Really interesting geography game - it plops you down in a Google street view somewhere in the world, and you have to wander around a bit until you feel confident taking a guess at where you are. You get points based on how close to accurate you were (in miles). I found it really interesting what things I ended up using for clues - foliage, language on signs, license plates, shop names, etc. My closest so far was .1 miles (it plopped me down in front of an easily-identifiable restaurant which was named for the bay it was in, which I've been to) and my farthest was mixing up Scotland and New Zealand

Thanks It not like I have anything else to do for the next several hours

Those of you who are geography fans . . . have you tried http://geoguessr.com? Really interesting geography game - it plops you down in a Google street view somewhere in the world, and you have to wander around a bit until you feel confident taking a guess at where you are. You get points based on how close to accurate you were (in miles). I found it really interesting what things I ended up using for clues - foliage, language on signs, license plates, shop names, etc. My closest so far was .1 miles (it plopped me down in front of an easily-identifiable restaurant which was named for the bay it was in, which I've been to) and my farthest was mixing up Scotland and New Zealand

To be fair parts of NZ and Scotland do look very alike and both use English so that won't help!

"The Universe puts us in places where we can learn. They are never easy places, but they are right. Wherever we are, it's the right place and the right time. Pain that sometimes comes is part of the process of constantly being born." - Delenn to Sheridan: "Babylon 5 - Distant Star"

When DH and I visited mainland USA, we were complimented daily on our great English. We are Australian. One guy, upon hearing we were Australian, said something like, "wow, that's overseas, isn't it? Like Canada?" I don't know, is there a prevalent belief that only people in America and England speak English? We traveled around quite a bit, so it wasn't just in one place.

I would have thought that people would be vaguely aware of which countries speak the same language as you, if only for potential holiday purposes.

Although, I've actually met British people who have complained of the same problem. Maybe we were just unlucky with the numbers of clueless people we encountered.

Slartibartfast, you are awesome! I showed this game to my 10 year old geography fiend and he's been transported (pun intended)!

And I just played it again and had my bestest score ever (31750) - all five rounds put me somewhere I could identify! (With the help of Google, but still - cool that a random roadside stand in rural Africa had a Facebook page!)

I love this game, except when the pics are blurry and I can't tell what anything is. That kind of bites.

Logged

You are only young once. After that you have to think up some other excuse.

Those of you who are geography fans . . . have you tried http://geoguessr.com? Really interesting geography game - it plops you down in a Google street view somewhere in the world, and you have to wander around a bit until you feel confident taking a guess at where you are. You get points based on how close to accurate you were (in miles). I found it really interesting what things I ended up using for clues - foliage, language on signs, license plates, shop names, etc. My closest so far was .1 miles (it plopped me down in front of an easily-identifiable restaurant which was named for the bay it was in, which I've been to) and my farthest was mixing up Scotland and New Zealand

To be fair parts of NZ and Scotland do look very alike and both use English so that won't help!

Don't they say that the South Island of NZ is, culturally, the most Scottish place anywhere outside Scotland?